US EMBASSY'S DESCRIPTION OF NIGERIA SHOULD BE A WAKE UP CALL FOR NIGERIAN POLITICIANS AND THE PEOPLE
February 3, 2021 | News
I must say that I was greatly disturbed when I saw an editorial piece online by the Nigerian Tribune, expressing US Embassy's description of Nigeria in its website, which is meant to inform Americans that are planning to visit Nigeria, all that they need to know about the country.
US EMBASSY'S DESCRIPTION OF NIGERIA SHOULD BE A WAKE UP CALL FOR NIGERIAN POLITICIANS AND THE PEOPLE
I must say that I was greatly disturbed when I saw an editorial piece online by the Nigerian Tribune, expressing US Embassy's description of Nigeria in its website, which is meant to inform Americans that are planning to visit Nigeria, all that they need to know about the country. While most of the things that were said by the US Embassy in its website about Nigeria can be described as hurtful, awful, annoying and degrading, but it is the BITTER TRUTH, which we all must swallow, and then make up our minds to strive to do something about it, and change the narrative.
As noted by the said editorial piece, as described in the US Embassy website, top most on the list of its unfavorable description of Nigeria, are the problems of our ailing and complete near absence of BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE, and the country's increasing INSECURITY concerns. And we can understand why the emphasis are on these two items, which is hinged on its importance to the development of any society and country. As long as a country lacks the provision of basic infrastructure and amenities, and cannot guarantee the security of its citizens and visiting foreigners, then be rest assured that such a country cannot see the desired development. There are no two ways about it. Places like United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore, Japan, Qatar, South Korea, etc., attained their current intimidating levels of development across all boards, simply because of their various leaderships' visions to entrench these two factors in their societies. Once a country or society is able to address these two factors, infrastructure and security, the other things that bring about rapid socio-economic and political development, will easily fall into place. As noted in the said editorial piece: "It is simply delusional for the government to claim to be in search of foreign direct investment from anywhere in the face of primitive infrastructure, particularly when there is no sign that efforts to change this narrative are in place."
It is sad to see and note how other countries view Africa and Nigeria in such low light. According to the said piece that stated the US Embassy's description of Nigeria, it said: "for instance, on health, the embassy confirms that Nigeria has well-trained health professionals but lacks good health facilities." This is apparently why Nigeria yearly loses its best brains in the medical field across the globe, to other developed countries who have developed health systems and structures that attract these Nigerians to migrate over there. This further leaves the nation's health sector in a more sorry state.
Other areas that were pinpointed by the said US Embassy website according to the said editorial piece include: The embassy’s observations and comments on water supply in Nigeria, which are instructive.
As it notes, “no areas (in Nigeria) have safe tap water.” It also berates the public transport system, describing it as unsafe throughout the country. According to it, “public transportation vehicles such as buses and motorbikes are unsafe due to poor maintenance, high speed and overcrowding.”
Everything that was said by the US Embassy about Nigeria in their website, is the bitter truth. Nigeria has surplus manpower in all aspects of the economy, ranging from Medicine, Laws, Pharmacy, Engineering, etc. Yet, we allow the best brains in these fields to leave the country in droves because the system here does not encourage ingenuity and creative thinking. The Government at all levels don’t even create the environment and systems that would encourage them to stay and build their country. hence, I am surprised that some foreign organizations still give awards to Nigerian politicians – including former Ministers, Presidents, Lawmakers, Governors, etc. One begins to wonder what are the reasons for giving such awards, especially when these people were never accountable while in office in the first place. No present and past Nigerian top politicians and top government officials are worth any award of excellence in service because they are all part of the united front that caused the economic havoc we see today in our society. While others have continued and encouraged stealing public wealth without resigning from the political space, which they have been in since 1999 till date. The only Nigerian politician and top government official that is qualified to receive such awards by foreign organizations, is Mr. Peter Obi, in my own opinion.
Even with the said poor description about our country Nigeria, I am certain that our political leaders are not moved or bothered at all at such official statements by foreign bodies and Government. They are only good at coming out to defend their gross incompetence in the face of failures. As noted by the editorial: "Sadly, it is not certain that governments across the country have ever considered the import of this damning description on the US website, otherwise they would have taken concrete steps to make the country a truly modern society. The import of the description is that governance in the country has been held in abeyance over the years."
I therefore join voices with the said editorial piece to make this clarion call to the Nigerian Government at all levels, as well as the citizenry, to wake up from their slumber and start doing what is expected of them in the public space. While the citizenry should be more aggressive in holding the political leaders accountable and answerable to them in the management of our collective wealth. This should be the thrust for now, while we hope that our Electoral process will become more credible and reliable to enable the citizenry to rightly chose their preferred leaders through the ballot box. Until that happens, we would continue to have political leaders that are nothing but square pegs in round holes - wasting and misappropriating the public resources meant to make life a lot better for the people.
Zik Gbemre.
February 3, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
I must say that I was greatly disturbed when I saw an editorial piece online by the Nigerian Tribune, expressing US Embassy's description of Nigeria in its website, which is meant to inform Americans that are planning to visit Nigeria, all that they need to know about the country. While most of the things that were said by the US Embassy in its website about Nigeria can be described as hurtful, awful, annoying and degrading, but it is the BITTER TRUTH, which we all must swallow, and then make up our minds to strive to do something about it, and change the narrative.
As noted by the said editorial piece, as described in the US Embassy website, top most on the list of its unfavorable description of Nigeria, are the problems of our ailing and complete near absence of BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE, and the country's increasing INSECURITY concerns. And we can understand why the emphasis are on these two items, which is hinged on its importance to the development of any society and country. As long as a country lacks the provision of basic infrastructure and amenities, and cannot guarantee the security of its citizens and visiting foreigners, then be rest assured that such a country cannot see the desired development. There are no two ways about it. Places like United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore, Japan, Qatar, South Korea, etc., attained their current intimidating levels of development across all boards, simply because of their various leaderships' visions to entrench these two factors in their societies. Once a country or society is able to address these two factors, infrastructure and security, the other things that bring about rapid socio-economic and political development, will easily fall into place. As noted in the said editorial piece: "It is simply delusional for the government to claim to be in search of foreign direct investment from anywhere in the face of primitive infrastructure, particularly when there is no sign that efforts to change this narrative are in place."
It is sad to see and note how other countries view Africa and Nigeria in such low light. According to the said piece that stated the US Embassy's description of Nigeria, it said: "for instance, on health, the embassy confirms that Nigeria has well-trained health professionals but lacks good health facilities." This is apparently why Nigeria yearly loses its best brains in the medical field across the globe, to other developed countries who have developed health systems and structures that attract these Nigerians to migrate over there. This further leaves the nation's health sector in a more sorry state.
Other areas that were pinpointed by the said US Embassy website according to the said editorial piece include: The embassy’s observations and comments on water supply in Nigeria, which are instructive.
As it notes, “no areas (in Nigeria) have safe tap water.” It also berates the public transport system, describing it as unsafe throughout the country. According to it, “public transportation vehicles such as buses and motorbikes are unsafe due to poor maintenance, high speed and overcrowding.”
Everything that was said by the US Embassy about Nigeria in their website, is the bitter truth. Nigeria has surplus manpower in all aspects of the economy, ranging from Medicine, Laws, Pharmacy, Engineering, etc. Yet, we allow the best brains in these fields to leave the country in droves because the system here does not encourage ingenuity and creative thinking. The Government at all levels don’t even create the environment and systems that would encourage them to stay and build their country. hence, I am surprised that some foreign organizations still give awards to Nigerian politicians – including former Ministers, Presidents, Lawmakers, Governors, etc. One begins to wonder what are the reasons for giving such awards, especially when these people were never accountable while in office in the first place. No present and past Nigerian top politicians and top government officials are worth any award of excellence in service because they are all part of the united front that caused the economic havoc we see today in our society. While others have continued and encouraged stealing public wealth without resigning from the political space, which they have been in since 1999 till date. The only Nigerian politician and top government official that is qualified to receive such awards by foreign organizations, is Mr. Peter Obi, in my own opinion.
Even with the said poor description about our country Nigeria, I am certain that our political leaders are not moved or bothered at all at such official statements by foreign bodies and Government. They are only good at coming out to defend their gross incompetence in the face of failures. As noted by the editorial: "Sadly, it is not certain that governments across the country have ever considered the import of this damning description on the US website, otherwise they would have taken concrete steps to make the country a truly modern society. The import of the description is that governance in the country has been held in abeyance over the years."
I therefore join voices with the said editorial piece to make this clarion call to the Nigerian Government at all levels, as well as the citizenry, to wake up from their slumber and start doing what is expected of them in the public space. While the citizenry should be more aggressive in holding the political leaders accountable and answerable to them in the management of our collective wealth. This should be the thrust for now, while we hope that our Electoral process will become more credible and reliable to enable the citizenry to rightly chose their preferred leaders through the ballot box. Until that happens, we would continue to have political leaders that are nothing but square pegs in round holes - wasting and misappropriating the public resources meant to make life a lot better for the people.
Zik Gbemre.
February 3, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes